Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker continues to drop hints about possible state involvement in funding a new Chicago Bears stadium in Arlington Heights, and the assembled media continues to Kremlinologize about it:
- The Chicago Tribune, citing “sources familiar with the discussions between the Bears and state of Illinois officials,” reported that both sides have been meeting regularly since early December and discussing both state infrastructure funding and approval of local property tax cuts for a Bears project, as well as possible guarantees by the team to make games more affordable.
- Pritzker spoke twice with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell last month, though the governor’s office declined to comment on what was discussed.
- At an event to announce Illinois’ launch of STAR bonds — state bonds repaid by siphoning off future sales tax revenue from a development district, most recently seen funding $2.775 billion toward a Kansas City Chiefs stadium project — Pritzker noted that while STAR bonds can’t currently be used for sports venues, the legislature could always change that: “We’re not specifically looking at it that way — perhaps the Bears are.”
- At the same event, Pritzker said of the STAR bonds, “We’re not going to do anything that’s bad for the taxpayers here. I mean, I am not… we’re not throwing money at building a stadium. For anybody.” He then added on the potential of the Bears moving to Indiana, “I’m always concerned about making sure that we’re attracting businesses or keeping businesses in the state of Illinois”; asked if he would consider offering enticements for, say, the St. Louis Cardinals to move to Illinois, Pritzker replied, “I am trying to attract businesses, yeah. You said ‘any world?’ Yeah, like every world in which we are trying to attract businesses—and that includes teams—but businesses to the state of Illinois.” (Cardinals president Bill DeWitt III, asked for comment on this, said his team remains focused on renovating its current stadium and “Illinois is not on our radar,” though you have to imagine putting Illinois on Missouri’s radar when it comes time to ask for renovation money is very much on DeWitt’s radar.)
- “People familiar with the discussions” tell CBS News that “representatives from Gov. JB Pritzker’s office, at least two Illinois state lawmakers, village leaders, and the Bears have met multiple times a week since December to discuss legislation to help the Bears with their proposed stadium in Arlington Heights” and they’re getting close to an agreement. Pritzker confirmed that there’s “progress that’s been made,” including on infrastructure spending “and other things that are sort of available to any business that is growing or building something new in the state of Illinois that’s putting people to work.”
New highway ramps and moving a commuter rail station aren’t typically things available to any business, so we’ll have to wait and see if Pritzker is talking about a smaller state infrastructure spend than the Bears owners’ $855 million ask, or if he’s trying to have his “not throwing taxpayer money at a stadium” and eat it too. All the good tea never gets spilled, this world needs some better people familiar with discussions, stat.
While technically, Illinois is only 5 minute drive from the current Busch Stadium, the Cardinals own so much property in their ballpark village around the stadium, it would be hard to see how it would pencil out to build a new stadium. They are seeking to do $500-600 million in renovations to the current stadium. A new stadium would cost $2 billion. So, between what they would have to contribute to that and the losses of value on the existing ballpark village, it would never work.
So in a roundabout way, these mixed-use developments can force a team to stay in their stadiums longer because otherwise they would hurt their other investments
At some point someone needs to ask where the 855 million in “infrastructure” is going. The entire 17 mile Tri- State reconstuction project is 4 billion dollars. That price include a rebuilding a major interstate interchange, building a 1 mile long bridge, installing fiber and related smart road technology, rebuilding overpasses, replacing rail bridges etc.
It cost 315 million dollars for the 2 mile Kirkman Rd in Orlando. Funny enough Universal paid 60% of the cost for a project that will benefit non park goers, and the new Universal park will produce more jobs and more economic activity than any football stadium can ever dream of.
It costs 30-50m to rebuild an exit into a diverging diamond and it cost 90 million to put in a new major on ramp project in an urban area.
The site already has power, water and sewage hook ups designed for large crowds. They might need updating but they don’t need tens of millions updating.
The only way to get to 855 million dollars is to start including hundreds of millions of dollars toward what any layperson would call stadium construction.
The Bears want them to relocate an entire Metra line/station, which can get pricey. But yes, it’s an excellent question as to what the limits on “infrastructure” would be, especially with other cities counting things like stadium foundations and stairwells as infrastructure.
You can say the same thing about basically every infrastructure project anywhere in the past few years. Why do subways cost $1 billion per mile these days?